Creating Race, Gender and Identity in Renaissance Europe

Assignment 5: Creating Race, Gender and Identity in Renaissance Europe- Readings and

Image Analysis

Due date: Monday, September 13th, 2021 by 11:59pm
Points: 100 points (10 pts per question)

The traditional art historical narrative of the Renaissance in Europe has focused predominantly on
Italy, largely on the city of Florence, and specifically on white, male artists such as Leonardo da
Vinci, Michelangelo and Donatello. Without disregarding the achievements of these men, we need
to acknowledge that history is largely a matter of perspective and to change one’s perspective
changes the story and how that story is told. This week, I would like you to engage with several
resources that highlight the lives of other people who lived and worked in Europe in the 14th-16th
centuries in Western Europe. In doing so, I would like us to begin to think about the creation of
identity in the works of art we find being produced in Europe in the 16th century.
Please consider the following questions as you explore the readings and videos highlighted this
week:
How is gender constructed?
How is power constructed?
How is race or skin color being used to determine identity and control?
How is clothing used to create one’s identity?

I. Please start by reading this article exploring the limitations of a traditional studies on the
Renaissance, and pay particular attention to the section titled, “Disrupting the narrative,”
which focuses on the role of Giorgio Vasari, a Florentine artist and one of the earliest
“art historians” of the Western world, in creating our understanding of the Renaissance.

Expanding the Renaissance: a new Smarthistory initiative

This entry on Vasari from Britannica provides a good background on who Vasari was and how he
continues to influence art history today:

https://www.britannica.com/biography/Giorgio-Vasari
Despite his inherent biases, Vasari, who was always trying to develop good favor with the powerful
Medici family of Florence, painted several portraits of Alessandro de Medici, the 1st Duke of
Florence who was also the son of a black slave or servant named Simonetta who worked for the
Medici’s while they were in exile temporarily in Rome. Known as “Il Moro” or “the Moor” because
of his darker skin, he nonetheless ruled Florence from 1530-1537.
Vasari’s portraits of Duke Alessandro include:
https://www.uffizi.it/en/artworks/vasari-alessandro-portrait

https://artsandculture.google.com/asset/portrait-of-alessandro-de-
medici/DAFKPUzlElGObw?hl=en

Portraits of the Duke by other artists:
https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O134159/alessandro-de-medici-oil-painting-pontormo/
https://philamuseum.org/collections/permanent/102656.html

II. Next, please explore the following resources pertaining to various ways in which social
constructs, such as race, gender, and power were created in European Renaissance art:
Constructing race:
1. Please view this video exploring the presence of enslaved Africans in an Italian Renaissance
painting by Filippino Lippi:

Filippino Lippi’s Madonna and Child, an early image of enslaved people in renaissance Florence

• This short article provides context for the Portuguese slave trade in the early modern
period as touched on in the video:
https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/agex/hd_agex.htm
2. Please explore this online exhibit exploring the use of and creation of black identity in
images of the Magi (3 Wise Men):

https://artsandculture.google.com/story/balthazar-a-black-african-king-in-medieval-and-
renaissance-art-the-j-paul-getty-museum/AQVx30rgsgazDw?hl=en

• This article also explores the creation of black identity in art to white European
audiences in the medieval and early modern period:

Images of African Kingship, Real and Imagined

Constructing power:

Gentile da Fabriano, Adoration of the Magi (reframed)

Constructing Gender:

Introduction to gender in renaissance Italy

Female artists in the renaissance

https://www.npr.org/2021/01/02/951479764/where-are-the-women-uncovering-the-lost-works-
of-female-renaissance-artists

III. Next, please locate the PowerPoint in this week’s Assignments folder titled, “The
Renaissance and Relational Power.” In this presentation, you will be introduced to a
painting by the Venetian artist, Titian, titled, Portrait of Laura Dianti. As you will discover,
it is the first instance of a portrait of a white European sitter accompanied by a black
servant of slave child. Please analyze this work and answer the 10 questions that
accompanying provided images (Slides 3-8). I have also included several other examples
of this convention that were subsequently employed throughout Europe and South
America to similar ends.
IV. Please type up your answers to all 10 questions and submit as a Word doc or PDF to
Blackboard under Assignment 5 by the deadline.

Epilogue: If you are interested in reading further on the topic of the construction of race in the
Renaissance, please visit the following link. There are several excellent longer articles covered in this
PDF:

https://thewalters.org/wp-content/uploads/revealing-the-african-presence-in-renaissance-